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"TWO GREAT LIGHTS" Genesis 1:16By Ian Potts
But
were the sun and the moon simply created to provide physical light for day
and night? To give light upon the earth?
Well
they have that use but there is more to these two great lights than just
that - much more. Each has a spiritual meaning. Each were given as “signs” to signify something, as
it says in verse 14 “and let them
be for signs”. When verse 17 says that they were created to “give light upon the earth” it
does not simply mean physical light, but spiritual. Spiritual light
is given by what they signify. In fact the sun wasn’t actually needed to
provide light physically as there was already light in the day before the
sun was created, as we read in verses 3-5 “And God, said, Let there be light:
and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God
divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first
day.”
So it
is clear that the sun and the moon which were created on the fourth day
were made to give more than just physical light. They were made to give
spiritual light (Psalm 19:1-2) – they are signs. Then what do they
signify?
The
answer may be seen by considering the realm in which each light is
created. The sun was created to rule the day. The moon was created to rule
the night. Each light rules over its own realm. The sun was not created
for the night, neither the moon for the day. The day has no need for the
light of the moon as the light of the sun far exceeds it. So each light is
for its own realm – they are separate one from the other. They ‘rule’ over
their own realm - one over light and one over
darkness.
Light
and darkness have much spiritual meaning throughout the scriptures. The
first chapter of John’s Gospel contrasts the light with the
darkness:
Before the coming of Christ
the world lay in darkness - spiritual darkness. Having fallen in Adam into
sin and death all mankind was full of spiritual darkness. All men had
sinned (Romans
But
John speaks of that one who was the true Light – the Word of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the world was darkness and death brought in by sin
(Romans
Two
Witnesses
In
the dark night of this fallen world God sent witnesses to His truth, who
bore witness of the Light – reflecting the light of God in a dark place.
Heralding the coming of Christ into the world, John the Baptist – the last
of the prophets - was sent forth from God as a witness, like a “star” in
the night sky. But “He was not that
Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light”. John pointed men
to the true Light who would follow him; he witnessed to that Light; he
pointed to the Light; but he was not that Light. Indeed John said
regarding Christ “He must increase,
but I must decrease”. See John 3:28-31.
Likewise Moses had been sent
into the world and by him the Law of God was given as a witness to the
Light which would follow and as a light to reveal the darkness of men’s
hearts by exposing and condemning their sin. Moses and the law reflected
the light of Christ, but they were not that Light, but bore witness of
that Light - they reflected it, as the moon reflects the light of the sun
in the darkness of the night. The moon illuminates the night but its light
is merely a reflection – a reflection of that light which comes from the
sun. In contrast the sun radiates light from itself of an altogether
greater brightness than the moon. Despite the light of the moon the sky
around it remains dark – the moon can be bright, but not that bright. But
when the sun shines everything
is lit up!
Moses
and John were both witnesses of that Light who would follow them. They
mirrored His light, but they had no light in themselves. Moses represented
the Law and John the Prophets, God’s two great witnesses which He sent
into the world to testify of the coming of Christ and His
Gospel.
These
lesser lights, these witnesses, point the way to that greater light,
Jesus, the Saviour, much as the star in the east led the wise men to where
the infant Jesus was that they might worship Him who was born the King of
the Jews (Matthew 2). May we be led likewise!
In
Romans we read that the law and the prophets witnessed to the Gospel and
the revelation (the light) therein of the righteousness of God:-
From
these things can be seen something of the meaning of the ‘signs’ of the two great lights
which God created. God set the moon to rule over the darkness of the night
– to illuminate those things done in the dark. Likewise He gave the law by
His servant Moses to rule over the spiritual darkness of men in the
‘night’ and to reveal those deeds done in the dark – “for by the law is the knowledge of
sin”. The Law of Moses, the “moon” casts light upon the works of
darkness – it exposes them. But still the darkness remains dark. The light
of this “moon” is insufficient to cast the darkness away.
But
the sun is a picture of a far greater light - a light which completely
transcends that of the moon in both brightness and glory. The sun points
us to Christ, the true Light, the “Sun of Righteousness”; the One who came
to deliver His people from darkness into light. We read of this in the
last of the Minor Prophets, Malachi, when he concludes the Old Testament
scriptures with that expectant word
“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with
healing in his wings”. Though
another 400 years would pass before Jesus, the true Light and the Saviour
of sinners, would be born of the virgin at Bethlehem, yet the prophet wrote by the
Spirit in expectation of that great day, when the darkness would be past
and the light of the Sun of righteousness would rise up and shine forth
unto all those that fear His name and believe on Him for salvation. What a
day!
Two
Glories
The
two great lights which God created each had a glory. Likewise the Law of
Moses was glorious. Moses’ face shone when he came down from the mount
holding the tablets of the law. He had been in the presence of God and
that glory was reflected in his face. But it was merely reflected. Moses
and the law, along with the prophets, bore witness of the true Light, but
they were not that Light – Christ was the true Light and His glory far
exceeded that of the law.
Two
Realms
The
law has its own realm, its own sphere – the night. But when the day comes,
when the sun rises over its own realm dispelling all the shadows and
lighting up all things under its glorious radiance, warmth and brightness,
what need is there of the moon? Its purpose has been fulfilled. When the
true Light shines, then no other light is needed. We don’t stand under the
light of the moon during the day, but under the sun!
Yes,
each light has its own realm – and they don’t mix! The moon rules over the
night and the sun rules over the day. Likewise the law was given to rule
over the darkness of men’s hearts, to expose sin, to condemn. The moon
illuminates the dark – it exposes things done in the dark. But its light
is only a reflection of the sun. It has NO LIGHT IN ITSELF. This is just
like the law. The law reveals what is done in the dark but sin is only
really revealed to us when the Spirit takes the law and applies it – then
the commandment ‘comes’ to us in our conscience. As Paul writes in Romans
7:9: “For I was alive without the law once:
but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” It is then
that the law by the Spirit has fulfilled its purpose – having exposed our
sin, applied its guilt to our conscience, condemned us and brought us in
guilty before God, dead in trespasses and sins.
But
when Christ, the Sun of righteousness arises in our hearts, Oh! What
deliverance He brings! How He brings us from darkness into light. How this
dispels all the gloom, all the shadows, all the deadness, all the guilt.
The light of the Sun shines forth in its beauty, brilliance and radiance.
Then the law is done away with just like the moon. The moon is for the
night, not the day, its ‘light’ is but a dark shadow when seen against the
light of the sun, and it sinks down beneath the horizon as the sun rises
to its highest height. When the Light of Christ arises in our hearts then
all things are seen clearly, all darkness is past, and all need of the
“moon” - the law - to direct our path is gone, for now we have a far
exceeding light, the one true Light, Christ, to guide us in our way. Now
we walk in the day, not the night, by the light of the Sun, not the Moon,
looking unto the Saviour. For God created two great lights, each in their
own realm - the moon for the night and the sun for the day. “And God set them in the firmament to
give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night,
and to divide the light from the darkness”.
From Darkness to
Light
Hence
the light is divided from the darkness, and those who walk in the light
have passed from darkness into light, and walk by that great light of the
day, in the Lord’s day, that day in which Christ, the Sun of
Righteousness, has risen to the highest height, having died in the place
of sinners, having made an end of transgressions, having taken all His
people’s sin and guilt away by shedding his precious blood in their stead,
having risen again the third day and then having ascended up on high to
sit down at the right hand of the Father ever to reign in glorious light
as the risen Son of God – the Sun of Righteousness who arose with healing
in his wings. Thus John writes:-
Oh!
may all God’s people be brought to see the glorious radiance of the Son,
by whose light they walk, and not be tempted to return to the realm of
darkness or even to the ‘glory’ of the law which was given as a light in
that darkness “for even that which
was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory
that excelleth.”
What
glory there is to be seen in Christ and His Gospel, for He alone is the
one true LIGHT. And will the “children of light” (1 Thessalonians 5:5)
walk by any other light or under any other rule?
May
Christ be our all in all!
Amen.
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